What started out as a personal heartfelt message of encouragement to injured rugby league player Alex McKinnon now has the potential to help him in his recovery and the songwriter Darryl ‘Carrots’ Bowen couldn’t be happier.
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Already a well-known musician and entertainer in the Upper Hunter, Darryl’s musical passion took a leap into the hectic world of recording and stadium performance in recent weeks and it’s all in support of good family friend Alex McKinnon.
An Aberdeen boy himself, Darryl has known Alex all his life as he used to play rugby league for the Aberdeen Tigers with his father Scott, so after Alex’s severe injury Darryl put together his thoughts for a message to send to Alex.
From this Facebook message, a whirlwind of greatness erupted which saw a song ‘Day By Day’ recorded by Sony music, and Darryl performing it live on the NRL Footy Show last Thursday, as well as at the packed to capacity Newcastle Knights home game at Hunter Stadium against the Gold Coast Titans on Sunday where Alex was special guest for the ‘Rise For Alex’ campaign.
Darryl’s song was also played prior to each game of the NRL for the weekend’s round.
He was writing the lyrics for a song for a mate’s wedding when he kept getting side tracked by thoughts for Alex and so decided to pen a few words down.
Darryl said the message, or now song, tells a story about Alex and aims to give him a message as well.
He said when he sent the message on Facebook he didn’t expect a reply, but he got a few messages and suggestions to develop it into a song and then Alex’s mum Kate contacted him and it developed from there.
Darryl had been working on it with other local musicians who he jams with, and these guys formed the backing.
The group, which includes Wade Bridge on the bass, Jason Mell on lead guitar, Jason Troy on rhythm guitar and Craig Daniel on the drums, played as part of the pre-game entertainment in the car park before Darryl braved it on the big stage solo.
Darryl said after such a hectic and nerve wracking couple of weeks with recording and performing on The Footy Show, he was surprisingly quite relaxed singing in Hunter Stadium.
“I think the fact that I’d been playing with the guys in the car park beforehand helped as I was in a steady state of mind,” he said.
“The crowd was just like a blur and I was just focused on getting the words out.”
The song has been released on iTunes and YouTube, and has now gone viral.
Darryl has signed a waiver to allow all proceeds from the song to be donated to the ‘Rise For Alex’ Foundation and he is pleased to be able to help in his own way.
“When I was writing the message I had Alex, his family and all his friends in mind, so it feels good to be helping out friends,” Darryl said.
The ‘Rise For Alex’ campaign has already raised more than $1 million for the local youngster’s recovery.